58 MY FARM. 



and they will be imitable only so far as they are sub- 

 ordinated to the trade laws of profit and loss. Farm- 

 ing is not a fanciful pursuit ; its aim is not to 

 produce the largest possible crop at whatever cost ; 

 but its aim is, or should be, taking a series of years 

 together, to produce the largest crops at the least 

 possible cost. 



If my neighbor, by an expenditure of three or 

 four hundred dollars to the acre in the removal of 

 rocks and other impedimenta, renders his field equal 

 to an adjoining smooth one, which will pay a fair 

 farm rental on a valuation of only two hundred dol- 

 lars per acre, he may be congratulated upon having 

 extended his available agricultural area, but he can- 

 not surely be congratulated on having made a profit- 

 able transaction. 



The weazen faced old gentlemen who drive by in 

 their shirt sleeves, and call attention to the matter 

 with a gracious wave of their hickory whipstocks, 

 allow that " it's fine ; but don't pay." Such obser- 

 vers and they make up the bulk of those who have 

 the country in their keeping must be addressed 

 through their notions of economy, or they will not 

 be reached at all. 



In the case supposed, I have, of course, assumed 

 that only ordinary farm culture was to be bestowed : 

 although there may be conditions of high tillage, 



